Agreed, but right now that’s how the depth chart lines up. I’m still hopeful for a Montgomery, who, let’s face it, had to sign somewhere. At a minimum get another relief arm and hopefully they don’t rely on Criswell or Max Castillo to hold firm his pen spot…Originally Posted by Bellhorn04
Merloni said on EEI today Montgomery absolutely changes everything if signed by Boston. Such a move, he noted -- as many here have -- will let Houck and Whitlock go back to the bullpen.
Then again, new pitching management supposedly favors pitchers with velocity... like Fujinaro, who throws 100 mph -- the guy the Mets just signed for $3.5 million. Too bad the Sox couldn't scrape up that much in their offseason budget.
Fujinami headlined my Reliever Wish List if Houck (or ?) was used in the rotation. Now that sad little list is headlined by Ryne Stanek and the oft-injured Codi Heuer, with Josh Fleming making the occasional cameo.
I’m more hopeful for Jordan Montgomery or Mike Clevinger at this point, although I’m openly willing to settle for Eric Lauer…
Have to believe an impending move, concurrent with the Epstein news, will answer Baltimore's sale and trade for Burnes... soon.
I don't like that idea, but it is better than nothing.
Maybe he thinks he has "backfilled" the pen, already:
Campbell
Slaten
Criswell
Fitts (will be a SP'er to begin 2024 in AAA)
Weissert
The return of Frank German & Noah Song
Maybe he thinks better health and full seasons from these returnees will help fill some gaps:
Schreiber
Bernardino
Mata
Murphy, Walter...
I've never been a fan of quantity over quality for the pitching staff and depth chart, but I do think we look okay in the 6-15 slots (and beyond #15)of the pen.
The 1-5 slots can look pretty good, the more tweeners we have in the pen, instead of the rotation, and adding another top 5 RP'ers would help, but I'd still rather add an innings eater SP'er that would allow us to lessen the depth we have to go to in the pen.
Last year, we used 33 pitchers, including Reyes in a couple games. We only had 2 pitchers with over 130 IP. That really kills a pen. We had over 655 IP from our pen, which does not count the "opener" IP or "pen game" starter. We used 27 pitchers in the pen, not counting Reyes.
We need to try (or hope) we can- go through 2024 using just 15-17 pitchers from the pen. Hopefully, we won't need to demote any SP'ers to the pen, like we did with Pivetta, Kluber and Whitlock in '23. That alone would help reduce the need to go so deep into the system to fill the need for innings from the pen.
Maybe Gio can give us over 180 IP, Bello and Pivetta over 170 and whoever our 4 and 5 is, over 150, but that is likely wishful thinking.
Last year Wink gave us 83 IP from the pen and only the pen. I hope we keep him in the pen for another 80-100 IP.
Pivetta gave us 56 IP from the pen, including some memorable long outings. Replacing his IP in the pen is crucial. (Whitlock?)
Matin (48) and Jansen (45) are essential to our pen success in 2024. If they can repeat 2024, our top two slots are set.
The rest of the 2023 pen by most IP:
48 Murphy (He may not even give us 10 IP in '24)
45 Schreiber (missed a chunk of '23)
42 Bernardino (joined us mid season)
31 Bleier- GONE
30 Llovera- GONE
25 Jacques- may be the next guy DFA'd
23 Walter- doubtful contributor in '24
22 Crawford- probably our 4 or 5 SP
21 Brasier- GONE
20 Whitlock (would love to see 70-90 IP from the pen in 2024)
19 Ort-GONE
17 Garza- GONE
13 Kluber-GONE
11 Robertson-GONE
11 Joely-GONE
9 Kelly (missed 5 months)
9 Weiss- GONE
8 Bearclaw- GONE
7 Sherriff, 3 Littell & Scott and 2 Lamet & Faria- ALL GONE
Maybe we can get by with 500 IP from the pen. This might be the ideal IP breakdown:
90 Wink
80 Whitlock
55 Schreiber
55 Bernardino
45 Martin
45 Jansen
45 Campbell
40 Slaten
45 Others
I know this is a pipe dream, even with 100% good health from the pen.
Whitlock or Wink will likely be forced to start some games, and some of the RP'ers I listed will struggle and need to be replaced by someone (Mata, Kelly, Fitts, Murphy, Weissert, Guerrero...?)
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
I defer to your knowledge of pen pieces, and I totally agree on the great need to add one of those SP'ers.
Pushing Houck or Crawford to the pen gives it an enormous boost. Not just with the skills they would bring, but more out of the fact that either could pitch 70-100 IP in relief, which might be 15-20% of all the IP needed by the pen in 2024. It would take a big strain of the rest of the pen arms and lessen the deep dives into the farm to find meaningful innings eaters in the pen.
Win-win-win-win. (4 wins with one SP signing.)
When you say it's gonna happen now
When exactly do you mean?
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